Project paperweight
by Xandraluna
Summary: Jack and the team meet Ianto Jones, no cyber woman just an odd little Artifact also, no Gwen yet and Susie is back from vacation but is a back ground character for now. many thank you hugs and a dozen virtual chocolate chip cookies to AllThatIWant for agreeing to Brit-pick for me!
1. Chapter 1

Jack stared at the cup of coffee steaming on his desk. He was quite certain that it had not been there 2 seconds before, when he had turned away to look for a stray piece of paperwork that had fallen to the floor.

Thinking of it, he was also not sure how that had happened either. Jack picked up the cup, sniffed the brew, took a sip and almost moaned with pleasure. This was the best cup of coffee he had ever tasted, and it was impossible that it was there. Jack thought for a second and started pulling up CCTV. He watched as a piece of paper seemed to pull itself out of the pile he still had to do and float to the floor. When he turned to retrieve it the coffee appeared on his desk. He froze the image, staring at the faint suggestion of a hand on the cup.

Ianto Jones moved down into the archives and stood next to the artifact that had so very completely ruined his life, waiting as alarms shrieked through the HUB. Maybe this group could figure it out. Torchwood one certainly hadn't, but this crew had a different approach.

He sighed and started cleaning up the desk he had found in the first section of the archives. He hoped he could set up some kind of trade, maybe a work for please fucking help me deal. First he had to persuade them to listen to him.

He sat on the formerly dusty chair, and started clearing the desk: Might as well do something useful while he waited.

The alien tec looked like a 4" iridescent cube, predominately golden with swirls of color; it looked like a square soap bubble, fragile, like it would collapse any second. Like you could breathe on it and it would pop.. Appearances were deceiving, yeah? Torchwood one had tried every form of destruction known to them, and some stuff they weren't sure of. The tec had ignored of it, unfazed, and Ianto had still been attached to it, sometimes visible sometimes not, but apparently just as indestructible as his new home.

Home was 'inside' the cube and looked like a very nice furnished apartment. He had found through experimentation he could change it to suit his mood, cook. brew coffee even watch the telly if he wanted to, but could not move more than a half mile from its present location before fading out and returning to his' flat'. He could not move the cube, but other objects, no problem. So Yvonne Hartman, director of torchwood one had ended up using the dammed thing as a paper weight and Ianto as an unpaid archivist. Not like he had anything else to do.

Canary Warf had happened and the cube was swept up along with every other artifact found in the ruins and shipped to torchwood 3.

Tosh, bless her, had seen the cube and placed it on the desk in archives to weigh down some papers, so at least it wasn't left to molder in some box. Ianto was grateful for that, would have made things a bit more difficult and he wanted to be as obvious as possible.

He carefully centered the letter he had written to explain his proposal on the desk, and, as the whole team crashed through the archive door, vanished.

"Project Paperweight?!" Jack stared at the innocuous piece of paper like it had suddenly sprouted legs.

The letter was simple, Just a Please help me, and a series of passwords, ending with that title.

Jack knew that artifact, the few (thankfully!)Times he had been in Hartman's office it had been sitting on her desk. He remembered admiring it, briefly and then dismissing it as he tried to warn the Director of Torchwood one how dangerous her research projects were. Not that she listened, just looked at him and dismissed him back to Cardiff, not bothering to hide her disdain.

He sighed and called Tosh. "I need you to find this" He tapped the paper "all possible information everything you can find. Then look for stuff you didn't find. I need it now."

The 'paper weight' ended up on Jack's desk.

Tosh settled back at her station and in a half hour with the help of Hartman's private codes and passwords had downloaded every file on the project. She started to flip through some of the files, and found a list of different kinds of bombs, and weapons both terran and alien. She would have set it aside but a hand slipped over her shoulder and pointed at the list.

"This is important "said a voice she did not recognize. Tosh jumped clear out of her chair and stumbled back, away from the man she had seen briefly down in the archives; she may have also screamed. Jack vaulted from his office, moving so fast that he did not seem to touch the stairs. One leap placed him between Tosh and the intruder.

"Who are you?" He yelled

Standing before him, was a young handsome man, tall, wearing the plain dark suit every Torchwood one employee had started wearing a few months before Yvonne's megalomania had destroyed her.

The young man looked startled, possibly at the speed of the captain's response. "Please help me" he said and looked like he was about to say more, but vanished again just before Jack could grab him.

Jack sat at his desk and stared at the cube. It sat on his desk and looked pretty.

Jack sighed" ok so what are we supposed to do with you?"

"Help me" said the young man, who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Jack looked at the young man

"Help you what? Help you how? Who the hell are you?" he said carefully settling back into his chair and keeping his hands on the desk, trying to look as non-threatening as possible.

"Jones, Ianto Jones, sir I worked for TTorchwood as an ar.. " and vanished again.

Jack stared at the space Ianto had been in, and then turned toward the door "Tosh!"

"Yes Jack?

We have a name, look up Ianto Jones in Torchwood ones data base!"

"on it Jack"

He had turned around to look out his door as he shouted and when he turned around there was a cup of coffee steaming on his desk.

"Brilliant" he said quietly and looked at the cube that was glowing softly on his desk "This conversation is going to get rather long if you keep vanishing." he said.

Flashback: Ianto

He and Lisa had been part of Torchwood ones search and recovery 'if it's alien it's ours!' Team.

They had been out on another mission recovery on another ship that had crashed, looking for tec, weapons, anything.

They had gotten careless.

The ship was trashed, they had found useless bits and scraps of this and that, dutifully packaged up and sent off to base, then with time to spare had found a room mostly undamaged with just the cube in it.

It had been plain, black, slightly slick looking, totally innocuous, just another scrap to package up and ship out.

Ianto had been talking to base, distracted by Lisa who was at that moment sweeping the room scanning for energy signatures. He had taken one glove off to dial base. Lisa had picked up the cube, smiled mischievously and tossed it to Ianto.

Her hand was gloved.

Ianto was distracted by the phone call and caught it with his ungloved hand. It was as simple and stupid as that, Ianto was trapped. He remembered feeling odd, had enough time to start to look frightened and vanished.

The cube fell to the floor, cushioned by Iantos clothes. Ianto woke up in a large, very clean and mostly empty room. He was lying on the floor of the room, his clothes were gone and he was quite alone. His meltdown happened the same time that Lisa's did but he survived his, he had no choice.

Present day, Jack, Tosh Owen

They were in the conference room the cube glowing in the middle of the table, surrounded by papers, pizza and coffee mugs.

"Strontium 90?" Jack would have yelled the words but somehow the sheer horror of what had been done almost robbed him of speech.

"They threw him into a room full of Strontium 90?"

"wouldn't have needed to have very much." Tosh said.

"Dropped a bunker buster on him and the cube "Owen said "shot, stabbed, poisoned.." Owen sounded as sick as Jack felt" Jesus Jack … "

"One of their own people" Tosh was shaking she abruptly pushed the sheet of facts Ianto had said was important away with a sick shudder.

Jack finished the chant "And every time, he vanished, and every time there was a space of 48 hours and he was back and unharmed"

"48 hours 1 minute and 27 seconds" said Ianto as he suddenly appeared in the door way. He raised his hands in a gesture of peace and waited for the team to collect their wits and holster their weapons.

"Please stay in your chairs, if the cube ahh thinks I am being attacked it will pull me away again"

He was nervous and just as clearly controlling it. The team stared at Ianto and then every head swiveled around to look at Jack, all at the same time. Right

"Fine "he said "first is that why you keep vanishing? The cube thinks you are being threatened and pulls you away?"

Ianto nodded

"okay everyone think peaceful thoughts and don't move"

The team looked at Jack again. Yeah ok "better yet, Ianto move away from the door and let everyone leave, we should talk"

Ianto carefully moved into the room,around the conference table as far away from the team as he could.

The team quietly got up and moved out the door.

There was a scramble for monitors.

Jack sat very still trying with somewhat limited success to look harmless.

Ianto sat down very carefully perched on the corner of a chair quite ready to bolt if needed.

He had gotten very good at bolting his former 'employers' had seen to that.

Jack waited. Ianto cleared his throat and said "thank you sir."

Jack said "you are welcome, how did you get stuck in that cube?"

"Sheer and utter stupidity sir." And Ianto told Jack the story of his last day as a Torchwood operative.

He started going a bit transparent towards the end and Jack very carefully did not make any comments, he just listened.

Then he stood up, very slowly

"Ianto I would like to help you and I will have Tosh and Owen research this cube as much as possible.

"Thank you sir" Ianto was visibly shaking.

"in return you can clear up the archives and keep the place running, at least until we can figure out how to get you out of that" and jack pointed at the artifact "paperweight.. Who named it that any way?'

"That would be Director Hartman sir"

"We really need a better name for it "Jack mused.

Ianto stood up "I will think on it Sir" and vanished.

.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It took Ianto a month to become the indispensable man at Torchwood Three. He cleaned, he served drinks. He made sure the team had everything they needed. He cleared the most recent archives and started on the mess in the old archive. He learned to shoot. (And Jacks idea of training was, well, innovative). He was the one who stayed in the hub on monitor duty. He made coffee. He even flirted with Jack, just a bit.

But something was slightly off. The team noticed that Ianto never really relaxed.

Owen and Susie both noticed that Ianto always kept his back to a wall. Tosh noted that he twitched when she touched his sleeve to thank him for bringing her coffee. Jack learned he could not sneak up on Ianto. They all saw that Ianto never went outside the HUB.

This was something Jack had seen before and after spending a long lunch out of the Hub with Owen, the two men agreed on a plan.

Ianto flashback

He had tried running, there were no walls.

White all white, no color, no anything.

Ianto was exhausted, scared and hungry; he could not recall ever being this utterly miserable.

He wanted to be home in his tiny little apartment. He wanted to be away from this nothingness. He wanted a beer.

Then somehow he was standing in his living room. His kitchen was right there, his coffeemaker right where he left it. Ianto stood still for a moment, then turned and walked to his front door, opened it and looked out on the trackless white space he had been running through. He quietly and carefully closed the door, locked it, went into his bed room, got dressed, then walked calmly into his kitchen and pulled out a six pack of beer. He sat down on his sofa, picked up the remote, turned on the telly and sat mindlessly switching channels. There were a lot of channels, and the beer never ran out. Exactly 48 hours 1 minute and 27 seconds later he appeared in the Torchwood Archives, and was promptly shot by the security guard.

Ianto present day

"Payment Sir?" Ianto was puzzled "Why do you want to pay me?"

Jack sighed, "Because you're not an indentured servant, Ianto, You are a member of the team. Team members get paid."

"But Sir-" Ianto started

"This is not open for discussion."

"Where am I going to spend this?"

"There's shops and pubs, all sorts of things we can do, all within a half mile. I had a bank account set up for you, so you can shop online. We can train you for missions and take the cube with us. You could just go outside and enjoy some fresh air."

Ianto looked away from Jack, "I have gotten used to being inside sir, it doesn't bother me anymore."

Jack stared at Ianto. "Ianto… when was the last time you were outside?"

Ianto kept his head down and stared at the floor, avoiding eye contact. "It was some time ago sir."

"How long ago exactly?" Jack was staring at him again.

Ianto stared at his hands. "48 hours, 1 minute and 27 seconds after they dropped the bunker buster on m... the cube sir."

Jack knew an avoidance tactic when he saw it, but he understood. "And when was that, exactly?" he asked gently.

Ianto was staring at his shoes. He kept silent for a few moments before sighing heavily,

"1991 during Operation Granby."

Jack said "I remember UNIT was involved."

Ianto nodded. "So was Torchwood, not overtly, but we were there all the same. Director Hartman took the opportunity to do some research."

.

Jack nodded, silently encouraging Ianto to continue.

Ianto began studying his shoes again.

Jack waited.

After a slightly lengthier amount of time, Ianto finally spoke, "After that we still had no idea what the cube was, except it appeared to be safe to handle, she started using the dammed thing as a paper weight, and had me work in the archives. Saved her a lot of money, saved me a lot of-" Ianto shrugged clearly feeling uncomfortable, "It gave me something useful to do." He said instead.

Suddenly Jacks eyes twinkled and one eyebrow rose slightly. Ianto knew that look.

"So Ianto, you like to be useful?"

"Careful sir that's harassment," Ianto said with that slight little smirk that said he didn't really mind.

"Oh I think you'll like this." Jack grinned.

" I'm just aquiver with anticipation, sir."

"Oh you will be, trust me."


	3. interlude

This bit was requested by my daughter so really its not my fault ! :)

Interlude

It had been a long tiring week. The rift had been particularly active, and Jack had declared a time out. Tosh, Suzie, Owen, Jack and Ianto had settled into the conference room for an impromptu late night Pizza and Beer party. The conversation had turned to Iantos still unnamed domicile.

Suzie said, "Millennium cube"

Jack mimed gagging.

Suzie mock glared at him, "You got a better idea Jack?"

"Sure, Love Shack."

Ianto, Tosh, Susie and Owen all shouted that one down. Jack pouted and drank more beer. "Ianto?" he asked.

"Luminous locker," Ianto said. Owen winced. "Well," said Tosh "it's better than 'love shack.'"

"Oi!" Jack objected, grinning. "Okay Tosh your turn, keep it going!"

"Okay how about Mystery Gate?" The silence was complete. Tosh grinned and mimed a victory sign. Then she stopped, looked thoughtful and started typing on her lap top.

"OOOKAAY!" Jack said "one more to go, take it away Owen."

Owen smirked "how about in-cube-ator?"

The groans and gagging sounds announced that Owen had won the game.

Hi guys I am really having a difficult time naming the Artifact, and 'that damned Cube' really is not working for me, so if anyone wants to give it a try feel free to do so. The winner, if any, will be properly thanked and cited.:)

All the best of the Season to everyone who celebrates, and Happy New Year to all!


	4. Chapter 4

Hi hope the Holidays treated you all well! chapter three is here . I am officially asking for some kind soul to brit-pick for me. I have done as well as I can with an English slang dictionary but It still doesn't sound right. I will thank you and make much of you in my notes and be forever grateful(insert puppy dog eyes here). As always thanks for the kind reviews you guys are fabulous:)

Ianto was quivering all right. Jack watched with fascination, he had never seen anyone actually _vibrating_ with disgust before.

Ianto surveyed the tourist office for a long 5 minutes, and then turned to look at Jack.

"YOU expect me to work in this ARMPIT?" he growled. The Welsh accent Jack was so fond of was not sounding so musical now.

Jack looked around, "It's a bit dusty I guess."

Ianto stared at Jack long enough for Jack to notice how very blue his eyes got when he was mad.

Iantos left hand reached out and gingerly picked up a brochure from the desk, using his fore-finger and thumb.

Dust fell off the paper, gently floating to the floor. The look on Iantos face was priceless, but Jack didn't dare smile right then.

"You are joking," Ianto snarled, "And if you think I am going to clean _this_ up you are mad! Get a haz-mat team in here to clear it all out. I will order new brochures. By the time they arrive, YOU will have this cleared and refurnished. If you want me to work up here, it WILL look like a real office, not a RUBBISH BIN!" Ianto vanished down to the Archives.

Jack stared at the brochure on the floor and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Wow."

It took Jack a week to clean out the office.

Owen and Tosh became oddly hard to find and Susie was suddenly very busy, so Jack ended up removing the alien bric-à-brac that had accumilated in there himself. It took him two days and he almost clogged the shower in his room after each day. The dust in that office was truly amazing. On day three, Jack decided that enough was enough and threw money at the problem. He ordered the old furniture thrown out, then had the place fumigated, steam cleaned and painted.

The next time Ianto walked into the room he looked around and actually smiled.

"I can work with this," he said.

Mermaid Quay tourist office was quickly refurnished, spotless and opened for business within the week for three hours a day, Thursday through Sunday. For the first week a member of the team was always hanging around in the office. The second week Ianto told them to go do something useful, elsewhere.

The first few days, opening the shades and unlocking the door was enough to cause him to stress himself into a 'fit of the ghosties' as Owen called it.

Rather predictably this made Ianto angry and anger turned to determination.

Ianto started pushing his boundaries the first day,and kept pushing.

Then one glorious spring day Jack invited him outside. Ianto turned his face to the sun and stood in the door for a half hour before he couldn't stand it any longer and moved back inside, but after that every day he managed to stay outside a bit longer.

One quiet Sunday morning Ianto walked to the little coffee shop across the street, picked up breakfast for the crew, and brought it back to the hub. He was shaking and fading around the edges by the time he got back, but he had done it. Jack, surprised and pleased, folded Ianto into a full on Jack style bear hug. Ianto stiffened and vanished, only to appear a few seconds later and return the hug with interest. Tosh and Owen watched with approval as a very happy Jack and a slightly transparent Ianto shared their first kiss.

"Two invasions" Jack said "In a week, with a side of hoix in the chip shop and weevils for desert."

He slumped in his chair, nursing a glass of water and rubbing his eyes.

Susie offered him a chocolate biscuit. "the rift seems to have quieted down for now, Jack."

Jack turned to Tosh. "What have you found out about the cube?"

Tosh put her tea-cup down "not much at all Jack.

"Give us what you've got" Jack said

"okay," Tosh said. "So far the likeliest explanation i have is, it's a time locked, dimensional construct, set to trap one entity. According to what Ianto told us he triggered it with an unshielded touch, and once he was caught it didn't allow any other objects inside."

Jack nodded.

"The scientists studying the..." Tosh grimaced, "'paperweight' conducted every kind of scan they had. They found that the only thing it emits is a pretty golden light and Ianto."

"It doesn't make any sodding sense!" Owen snarled. "It's too posh for just randomly grabbing some bloke and keeping him prisoner!"

"Ianto tells us it is somewhat responsive to thought. It has something like an operating system, even if Ianto hasn't seen it. The cube heals him, teleports him away from danger and keeps him within a half kilometer radius of the cube." Tosh said thoughtfully.

Jack nodded. He was starting to get a very bad feeling about this. He didn't want to think about the enormous amounts of time and labor needed to build a small private universe with a stable 'door'. Just the energy needed to set that up: and Ianto was trapped in there … Jacks head was really starting to hurt.

Owen tossed him a packet of pain pills.

"The only thing I can think of that would cause anyone to go to those kinds of lengths is desperation bordering on the insane," Tosh said.

"Or they could have been just bat shit crazy." Owen snarked.

Jack rested his aching head on his hands. "So the working theory is, it's an impossibly expensive, incredibly elaborate trap slash prison cell?"

Tosh nodded.

"Next question is what or who was it supposed to trap?" Owen said, "Not the tea boy that's for sure."

"Well it could be," Tosh said thoughtfully

'What?" Jack sat up in his chair.

Tosh blushed, "Jack we just don't know exactly what its supposed to contain. I can theorize that it was for something big, powerful and dangerous. I can guess that it's an escape pod or a fancy tent, but every test I run is inconclusive. Its frustrating!"

"Yeah you're right," Jack said tiredly. "We _really_ don't know."

Tosh looked sympathetically at Jack then "But you know what?"

"What?"

"I won't quit until I find out."


	5. Chapter 5

this is a series of vignettes moving toward chapter 5, which will be out soon. I am working towards getting Ianto out of the hub for some weevil hunting but that is still a ways away enjoy! As always love reviews!

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Questions and answers

Jack and Ianto

"Why do you fade out like that anyway?"

"I really don't know sir; it started after the third time I was shot."

Jack winced in sympathy.

Ianto looked at Jack for a moment. "Became very useful once I learned to control the transmat."

Jack sat back in his chair. Transmat, well of course the damned cube would have a transmat…

qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq

Conference room, another late night at the office…

"So why can you pick up everything except the cube?" Owen asked.

"Would you like my best guess?" Ianto said.

"Guess away bubble boy."

Ianto held his arm out in front of him "Do this" he said to Owen. "And by do this I mean hold your arm out in front of you like this, palm down." The smirk that had started to form on Owens face died out at Iantos utterly serious tone, and he did as Ianto directed.

"Now, reach up, grab your collar and lift yourself off the floor." Ianto smirked

Owen dropped his hand to the table with a disgusted look on his face. "You little shit." he snarled.

Jack fell off his chair laughing.

Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

"Ianto I need you to report to Owen for a full Physical. Will he find anything out of the ordinary?"

"I hope not sir."

Owen had checked and rechecked his findings. Ianto was in perfect health for a 25-year-old, which was odd because according to his file he was 48.

lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

"So why hasn't he aged?" Tosh asked Owen.

Owen pulled himself out of his video game and looked at Tosh "Huh?" he said. "Who?"

Oh crap, He knew THAT stare. Tosh was a bulldog, (a petite lovely bulldog} when it came to chasing down facts. Tosh had seen Owen escorting a reluctant Ianto into the med bay for a physical and was not going to stop until she had shaken every answer she could get out of him.

"Ianto, Owen. According to what he told Jack the last 'Test' (here she made the quote sign) Torchwood conducted was in 1991. According to his records he was born 08/19/1958 and started at Torchwood in 1979.

He was with them for 5 years until the cube incident and he has been in the cube since then. It is now 2006. He is 48 years old and he looks 25."

Owen looked uncomfortable "Ah... he's really well-preserved?"

Tosh glared .Owen was looking around for an escape, but none was clear at that time.

yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Ianto slammed a cup of coffee in front of Owen with a threatening stare. "Tosh knows."

Owen raised his hands, palms out "sorry mate she figured it out on her own."

"I didn't want that common knowledge" Ianto stalked away. Owen took a sip and grimaced, "bah,decaf."

lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

"Why didn't you want us to know?" Tosh sounded annoyed and hurt. "Did you think I wouldn't notice?"

"It's a private matter." Ianto said, face slipping into the Butler mask she knew so well and was starting to hate

"Did anyone at T-1 know?' she asked.

"Of course they didn't!" Ianto sputtered "would you want them to know?"

Tosh blinked "Why would that make any difference? You could just vanish into the cube and they couldn't touch you."

Ianto shook his head.

Tosh thought for a moment, then said," but if that's the case how did they do the experiments?"

"For a while I was helping with the research. Then Yvonne decided she wanted indestructible solders." Ianto shuddered, then continued,

"Playing hide and seek with T-1 trained assassins was… instructive."

Ianto flashback

The first time the cube forced him out after special ops took over he had vanished. This was before he learned to control the transmat. He slipped past them, running down a corridor and ducking into a small office (John Smith managing director Spatial Acquisitions, who was that?) locked the door and stopped moving. It did not help. Special ops had a heat sensor.

Round one went to special ops. Ianto woke up back in the cube, healed, but hurting.

Out in the real world the office was a total disaster, but there was no blood, at all. Mr. Smith was not amused.

The second time,he had appeared, a bright blue mist had almost instantly paralyzed him. He remembered being unable to breathe, but it simply didn't seem important. The cube had pulled him in as darkness pulled him under. That time he had woken up dizzy, nauseous and barely able to move. Ianto shakily stumbled to his couch and collapsed.

For the weapons testing, all T-1 had to do was place the cube at ground zero and blast away. They politely waited until he could join them. Shot stabbed gassed exploded... Ianto was still having nightmares.

"Why did you come out if you knew that they were there waiting for you?" Suzie asked absentmindedly, playing with an odd-looking knife they had found a week before. Every one was watching her and carefully staying out of reach.

"Had no choice, the cube is on a schedule. I have to come out every 48 hours. It took me a while to learn how to transport away from the immediate area" Ianto said.

"You said the cube was doing that. " Tosh sounded slightly offended.

"That was just after I arrived here," Ianto said stiffly "and technically it is the cube doing it; I just finally learned how to control it a bit."

Owen nodded "Would have done the same." he said to Tosh.

"How did you keep T-1 from seeing that you weren't aging?" Tosh asked.

"A few years after I 'persuaded' Director Hartman to end the experiments I started to add a grey hair or two and a few wrinkles."

"where did you get a makeup kit?" Owen asked

"Found it in the spare room" Ianto said.

Jack took the knife away from Suzie

"No, Suzie, you cannot experiment on the cube, put the knife down and check out the glove."

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Jack." Ianto said

Jack was sitting at his desk taking care of his least liked chore, paperwork. Owens last report was hand written, and probably deliberately very hard to decipher. Dammed sod had left a greenish stain on it, too. He didn't answer.

"Jack." Ianto said again. Jack was turning the report side ways to see if that made it any more readable. Ianto moved closer, leaned over the desk and said "JACK!"

The report flew up in the air, pages scattering everywhere.

"WHAT?' Jack yelled back. Ianto was standing by his desk, looking determined "Jack, we need to talk."


End file.
